Dad's Favorite Healthy Recipe Sausage

This healthy recipe sausage is my Dad's favorite. He's had to cut down on the salt in his diet, and thinks this is the best of all my low sodium recipes (I think it may be the wine). It's just the ticket for a great breakfast.

To keep the fat content of the sausage down for him, I use trimmed pork shoulder, but any lean cut of pork would work well.

Ever since I started including healthy and low salt recipes in my sausage making arsenal, I realize even more than ever how important it is to use the best and most flavorful ingredients.

3 lbs 90% lean pork shoulder (or similar cut)

4 cloves minced fresh garlic (or 1 tablespoon granulated)

1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

1 teaspoon rubbed sage

1 tablespoon red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon ground oregano

2 tablespoons ground dried parsley

2 tablespoons ground dried basil

1/2 cup good red table wine, very cold

Grind the pork through the medium plate of your meat grinder.

Mix all the spices with the 1/2 cup of red wine and pour it into the ground pork.

Mix the ground pork and wine/spices well by hand for at least 2 minutes to ensure even distribution.

After mixing, place the sausage in a covered bowl and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour or up to over night before using it.

We use this as a bulk sausage, though I suppose you could stuff it if you really wanted to. I wouldn't want to use natural casings though. They have a high added salt content because of the way they are preserved.

Like most bulk sausages, this recipe will keep well in the fridge for up to 3 days, and can be frozen in patties or logs for future use.

Dad loves this recipe in a breakfast sausage and egg scramble made with egg beaters.